---
title: Suddenly, as they were skirting the shore of a small secluded inlet,… — The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North · tree and pragmatics
description: Suddenly, as they were skirting the shore of a small secluded inlet, they heard what seemed to be the moaning of some one in great distress. Who acts: steeds. A sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Weeping Ship, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Weeping Ship, sentence 38

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Suddenly, as they were skirting the shore of a small secluded inlet, they heard what seemed to be the moaning of some one in great distress.

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**Who acts:** steeds · **What happens:** skirt, hear, seem, be · **To what, where:** shore, moaning · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Weeping Ship. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (steeds), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg66819:33:38
# text = Suddenly, as they were skirting the shore of a small secluded inlet, they heard what seemed to be the moaning of some one in great distress.
1	Suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	skirting	skirt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	secluded	secluded	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	inlet	inlet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	nsubj	_	_
18	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	moaning	moaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	xcomp	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nmod	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	distress	distress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **skirt** | past · progressive | steeds *= steed* | the shore of a small secluded inlet |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme shore=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **hear** | past | steeds *= steed* |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **seem** | past |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | the moaning |  |  |  | of some one in great distress | tree rules |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 66819 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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